California Gov. Gavin Newsom tore into MAGA figures melting down over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, declaring “Bad Bunny Day” in the state and mocking the rival show conservatives billed as an “all-American” alternative.
The Puerto Rican reggaeton singer, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, was picked last year to do the famous halftime show, to the ire of Trumpworld. MAGA conservatives reacted with horror to his Spanish lyrics and non-binary wardrobe, as well as his stance on the administration’s heavy-handed ICE crackdown.
Cue the outrage, then, as Bad Bunny lit up his critics by barely nodding to them during his 15-minute extravaganza at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Sunday. His most passionate hater, President Donald Trump, was clearly rankled.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” he wrote after the show he had vowed not to watch (then did.)
His cronies and minions were equally upset, which Newsom quickly seized on to troll them on X.
“BEAUTIFUL HALFTIME SHOW. GOD BLESS BAD BUNNY! GOD BLESS AMERICA! — GOVERNOR GCN," read his first post, written in the Trumpian all-caps style.
“LOVE TRUMPS HATE!” he added, sharing an image of Bad Bunny holding up a football with the words “together we are America” on it. In a separate post, Newsom showed a close-up of the football and added, “This is the message MAGA is protesting.”
He then took a pop at the headliner of Turning Point USA’s petty Super Bowl alternative, the All-American Halftime Show. “This is who MAGA is celebrating,” he wrote, with a video detailing disturbing lyrics from Kid Rock’s song “Cool, Daddy, Cool.”
“Young ladies, young ladies, I like ‘em underage, see,” the song goes. “Some say that’s statutory, but I say it’s mandatory.”
An April 2001 Saturday Night Live appearance has also resurfaced. In it, Kid Rock, who was 30 and already a father, used crude language to claim Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were old enough to pursue. At the time, the twins were 14.
Even Newsom’s wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, got involved in the trolling. “Happy Benito Bowl!” she wrote on X, sharing a photo of her and the governor at the stadium, using Bad Bunny’s everyday first name.
The day beforehand, Newsom had issued a Trump-style declaration deeming the day of the Super Bowl a holiday, to honor “WHEN BAD BUNNY PERFORMS AT THE BIG GAME IN THE GOLDEN STATE WITH HIS SOOTHING, BEAUTIFUL VOICE, AND HIS VERY NICE LOOKS.”
